place to turn into a ski resort. This looks wonderful. Itâs such a pretty location.â
âWe werenât supposed to arrive until noon, but weâre just so excited,â the husband added.
Mr. Kim debated with himself about whether to warn this family about the house. What would he say? Would he tell them not to buy the place because it was haunted by a ghost? Theyâd think he was crazy. Just like he had thought his daughter was crazy.
âGood luck,â he simply said, and then he rolled up his window.
As the two cars passed each other, Maggie locked eyes with one of the little boys. She shook her head, hoping to send a message. The boy turned away and started fighting with his brother.
As Mr. Kim started to turn out of the driveway, Maggie turned back for one last look at the mansion.There, in the same window where she had seen him on the night they arrived, was the ghost of Old Man Wharton. He caught Maggieâs eye and smiled, raising his hand to wave good-bye. She wondered if he was sorry for putting her family through such an ordeal this weekend. She wondered if he felt that he did what he had to do in order to keep others safe.
And then he noticed the other car moving up the driveway, approaching the house. His smile morphed into an angry scowl, and he turned from the window to prepare for his new guests.
Prologue
Mr. Talbert yawned as he tried to hold a stack of uncorrected lab papers
and his coffee cup in one hand and unlock his classroom door with the other. Feeble
early-morning light filtered through the high windows and reflected off the surfaces of
the lab tables. He flicked on the overhead, flooding the room with harsh fluorescent
light. He yawned again as he headed for his desk, wondering if heâd have time this
Friday morning to finish grading all the labs before first period.
He plopped the stack of papers down on his desk. Then he scratched his
head quizzically and regarded the life-size skeleton next to his desk. The
skeletonâs head was cocked at a jaunty angle. It stared back at him with its
shadowy, unseeing eyes.
âDid I just see what I think I saw?â he
asked the skeleton.
The skeleton didnât answer.
Mr. Talbert took three backward steps. He turned toward the bug terrarium
that sat on the counter running the length of his classroom. The counter was cluttered
with mineral samples, animal skulls, and fossils.
The lid of the terrarium was askew. He crouched down to peer into it.
The day before it had contained a bustling little ecosystem, filled with
at least a dozen large green scarab beetles, scientific name Chelorrhina polyphemus , crawling around on the sandy bottom and gnawing on
the bits of apple his middle school students had dropped in. But now the terrarium was
empty. The beetles were nowhere to be seen.
Mr. Talbert turned back to the skeleton. âThey canât have
climbed out on their own,â he said. âSomeoneâs taken them!â
The skeleton didnât answer.
Chapter 1
âUm, Jess? No offense, but that hat?â Alice mock-shuddered.
â So last year.â
Jess reached up and touched her hat, smiling ruefully at Alice. âI
know, I know. But it was so cold this morning when I ran out of the house, and I left my
good one in my locker at school.â
âI always buy two of everything,â pronounced Pria. âThat
way I have a spare.â
Kayla, who was picking her way along the icy sidewalk a step behind the
other three girls, furrowed her brow. She liked Jessâs
hat. It was a dusty rose color with a folded-up brim that set off Jessâs delicate
features and wide-set green eyes. But Kayla would never dream of piping up and
disagreeing with Alice. No one wanted toinvite Aliceâs
criticism if they could help it. Kayla wondered if Pria was serious about buying two of
everything. Like that would ever happen in Kaylaâs
house.
Kami García
JG Faherty
John Ramsey Miller
Michelle Mulder
David Zieroth
Myra Nour
Paige Shelton
J.J. Marstead
S. K. Ng
Marjorie Eccles